You have to die several times to come back to life, a Gothenburger once said, which is exactly how I feel every time I pick up rouge. The type I really hate. Actually, I have neither the nerve nor the patience for this kind of self-torture, but at the same time, when after hundreds of attempts, you finally stand there as a winner, it’s one of the best feelings in the world. When you’ve felt so many hours of frustration and bottomless despair suddenly replaced by triumph and euphoria. When you lay on the floor in the fetal position in the middle of the night, doubting your choices in life, but now you stand up, straight as an arrow, and cry out for your salvation. So it doesn’t matter how much time I spent getting here. Go to the end of the road.
This doesn’t happen very often these days because games are of course very difficult, but they also have to be fun, and preferably there should be some sort of fair system that doesn’t leave me completely helpless in the hands of RNGesus. It’s not going to make my runs completely pointless or throw in the towel early on. Even when I die, I can maintain some kind of progress, which is something giants of the genre do very well.
The blood, sweat, and tears I sacrificed at the Altar of Chance in fantastic games like Slay the Spire, Darkest Dungeon, Dead Cells, and Hades were undoubtedly great, but I never felt like I wasted a lesson because it always gave I leave some sort of advancement, like a new card, character, item, or whatever else that might make my next round easier, or that lady luck doesn’t smile at me at all, and I’m back to sitting there with my ass in my hands. But that’s also the beauty of a game like this. It can go almost anywhere. I learn something new and get stronger and wiser every time. Less despair, more strategy. It’s a genre that really isn’t for everyone, but for those who like the concept, there are plenty of options, but you have to find the right one, because few things in life are more frustrating than a really bad rougelike . Sea Horizon does a lot of things right, but also falls into some of the most common pitfalls.
A lot is familiar from the aforementioned titles, but most of all I see similarities to Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon, and you’re bound to get worse combinations. Each playable character has a unique fighting style, represented by playing cards, and just like in Slaying the Spire, I also unlock new cards that add to my deck and can be used in future rounds remain there. However, what’s new in Sea Horizon is a mix of cards, dice, and elements. Each item, whether it’s a sword, shield, or armor, has a dice rating attached to it with numbers and symbols. So does the number of dice that will be rolled if I choose that particular item, and so do the elements that may appear on the dice after the roll.
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It’s not the easiest thing to explain in text format, but in a nutshell, for a battle to be successful, you need the high numbers in the dice and the correct type of symbols to play as many cards as possible to deal the most damage. It’s a complex system that works brilliantly, but it’s also a very steep learning curve and it takes longer to really master the technology. You can think about what you want, because what it ends up doing is adding another layer of challenge to an already pretty difficult genre. Personally, I struggle with it. I love a challenge, which as I said is a prerequisite for rouge, but at the same time I hate the insignificance that I can affect the outcome of a battle.
When it comes to combat, they are the bread and butter of the game. This is where all the action comes in, because even though the game world is presented in a simple and beautiful hexagonal tabletop view with free exploration of ships and apostle horses, it’s ultimately the battles that drive progress. Here, I picked up a lot of loot (which, unfortunately, often consisted of duplicates), new abilities, money, and food. In a cubist world where everything wants to kill me and some enemies need only one hit to pack me, that’s a necessity. Sometimes I can avoid my miserable fate, and sometimes I’m screwed before I even get started. I can basically predict the outcome by letting the game tell me what the fight will look like.
Because if the journey is shown from above, the combat is instead a panoramic view, like in Slay the Spire, but since some game modes also allow for multiple playable characters, it’s also reminiscent of the darkest dungeon, like As in the latter title, I had the option to click on my enemies to see how they would behave in the next round. How much damage do they cause? How much health do I have to fight? Are they going to block my two-handed sword? Are there any enemies on-screen that can be healed, and if so, how many? Do I have time to kill my main target before it regenerates health? This is one of Sea Horizon’s truly great gaming moments. It forces me to think carefully about every move I make. One mistake could mean the end, and it kept me on the edge of my seat. There is nothing wrong with diversity. During my journey, I encountered everything from giant wolves to evil wizards, interspersed with several impressive bosses and many other loose cannons, ready to hinder my progress.
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Unfortunately, it’s a little too unbalanced in my opinion, as I’ve failed so many times. Not because I was incapable or playing recklessly, but because luck was simply not on my side. With its triple system, cards, dice and symbols all have to co-exist, which is easy to do. Just cards, or just dice, or elements controlling all decisions is one thing, but in combination, it’s difficult. Combine that with the fact that I’m constantly consuming food, and there’s another thing to keep track of. When the food runs out, it’s finito. Then you die with a bang, and after a few steps, it was generous with the crab at first, but the farther I went, the food became sparser, and soon I felt like all the gods of chance were fighting me.
Now I realize that’s what game design itself is all about, it’s just a matter of buying a setting or admitting it’s not for me and moving on with my life. I do the former, and even though the gameplay segments are pretty frustrating, I have surprisingly fun hours and hours of play here, thanks to the many different game modes.
Sea Horizon offers no less than three different game modes, Story, Dungeon, and Exploration. Story is exactly what it sounds like, a story mode for the character you choose. There are ten to choose from, all with their own stories, and this is also where you’ll find the tutorial, which is highly recommended even if you’re used to the genre. The dungeon in turn allows for three characters who, in pure dark dungeon style, try to survive at all costs and ultimately defeat a brutally difficult boss. Last but not least is Exploration, which allows players to freely explore the map with three different characters. You unlock different characters and their outfits by completing quests, and luckily, there’s no way to add your own money, neither cosmetics nor progress.
If you’re already hooked on the genre and feel the need for something new and challenging to immerse yourself in on a warm summer night, there’s plenty to discover in Sea Horizon, but it won’t appeal to any new fans.
